How do frogs survive in the drier parts of northern Australia?
Despite their dependence on moisture, frogs are found through much of arid Australia due to their remarkable ability to exploit what little water there is in these environments. These adaptations also prove useful in northern Australia which has severe dry seasons where little, if any, rains falls for months at a time. Frogs cope with this seasonal ‘desert’ quite well: many live in areas with permanent water, while others can lay their eggs in temporary ponds. Northern Australia has many such ponds that form in the wet season and then evaporate in the long dry season and which are good homes for frog eggs as they have few predators. They are often to be found teeming with tadpoles. By the time the ponds dry out the tadpoles have developed into small frogs which then find refuge in cracks in the soil, crevices in timber and trees. Others use refuges provided by people — a familiar example being the green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) which lives in down-pipes and toilet bowls. However so
